Procession in Renaissance Venice Effect of Ritual Procession on the Built Environment and the Citizens of Venice Figure 1 | Antonio Joli, Procession in the Courtyard of the Ducal Palace, Venice, 1742. Oil on Canvas. National Gallery of Art Reproduced from National Gallery of Art, http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/art-object-page.32586.html Shreya Ghoshal Renaissance Architecture May 7, 2016 EXCERPT: RENAISSANCE ARCH RESEARCH PAPER 1 Excerpt from Procession in Renaissance Venice For Venetians, the miraculous rediscovery of Saint Mark’s body brought not only the reestablishment of a bond between the city and the Saint, but also a bond between the city’s residents, both by way of ritual procession.1 After his body’s recovery from Alexandria in 828 AD, Saint Mark’s influence on Venice became evident in the renaming of sacred and political spaces and rising participation in ritual processions by all citizens.2 Venetian society embraced Saint Mark as a cause for a fresh start, especially during the Renaissance period; a new style of architecture was established to better suit the extravagance of ritual processions celebrating the Saint. Saint Mark soon displaced all other saints as Venice’s symbol of independence and unity. Figure 2 | Detailed Map of Venice Reproduced from TourVideos, http://www.lahistoriaconmapas.com/atlas/italy-map/italy-map-venice.htm 1 Edward Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 87. 2 Muir, Civic Ritual, 80-81. EXCERPT: RENAISSANCE ARCH RESEARCH PAPER 2 The Renaissance period in Venice, lasting through the Quattrocento and Cinquecento, was significant because of the city’s maintenance of civic peace; this was achieved in large part by the rise in number and importance of processional routes by the Doges, the elected leaders of the Republic.3 Venice proved their commitment to these processions by creating a grander urban fabric. While every society had special ceremonies and occasions, civic ritual in Venice was notable for exceptional glory, and this theatrical tradition only grew after the end of the Middle Ages.4 Figure 3 | Ducal Palace with a Religious Procession, Oil painting by Richard Parkes Bonington, 1802-28. Oil on Canvas. Tate Modern. Reproduced from Tate Museum, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bonington-venice-ducal-palace-with-a-religious-procession-n05789 3 Howard, The Architectural History of Venice, 13; Patricia Fortini Brown, Art and Life in Renaissance Venice (New York: Prentice Hall, 1997), 9. 4 Muir, Civic Ritual, 83. EXCERPT: RENAISSANCE ARCH RESEARCH PAPER 3 These civic processions in Venice created a need for a more identifiable “Venetian” style of architecture, rather than the assortment of Roman and Byzantine styles from its past. Venetian artists and intellectuals participated in the recovery of the ancient world, as the Renaissance is often characterized, but in their own way, and often ended up melding an array of styles resulting in an aesthetic diversity more fitting of the Venetian people. Although the Doges were not the most enthusiastic patrons of religious art or architecture, the Scuole (confraternities and guilds) in Venice provided an opportunity for non-noble Venetian citizens to control religious and civic patronage of the arts. They supplied schools, hospitals, relief to the poor, and general support for the social functions of the city (including ritual processions). 5 The influence of the Scuole was notable around the city in their construction and upkeep of religious and civic architecture and the promotion of the arts, especially during the Quattrocento and Cinquecento.6 Starting with small projects by artists and sculptors from Florence and Rome, the Renaissance influence finally took hold in 1460 with a gateway arch by Antonio Gambello as the first truly identifiable piece of Renaissance architecture, to be followed by the civic and private architecture reminiscent of ancient Rome.7 “By the middle of the sixteenth century, a visitor could stand in the Piazzetta and take in at a glance Venice’s history. The Basilica of San Marco… a spiritually resonant Byzantine past. The Gothic architecture of the Doge’s Palace…On the west side of the Piazzetta, the Loggetta and the new library of San Marco designed by Jacopo Sansovino in a Roman Renaissance style.”8 5 Brown, Art and Life, 37. 6 Ibid., 98. 7 Howard, The Architectural History of Venice, 105. 8 Brown, Art and Life, 26. EXCERPT: RENAISSANCE ARCH RESEARCH PAPER 4 Venice drew many distinguished architects from all around mainland Italy because of the interesting opportunities and challenges it offered in terms of design, and later because of the Doge Andrea Gritti’s strong push for the renewal and aggrandizement of the city. Sculptor and architect Pietro Lombardo, with his sculptor sons, settled in Venice in 1464 and began what is now called the Renaissance style; taking cues from Alberti, the family erected elegant, sculptural archways throughout the city. …the greatest ornament to the forum or crossroad would be to have an arch at the mouth of each road. For the arch is a gate that is continuously open… the most suitable place to build an arch is at the point where a road meets a square or forum, especially is it is a royal road (the term I use for the most important road in a city)…9 Most subsequent architects of Venice also used the Renaissance ideals of Alberti as their inspiration for redesigning the city. Mauro Codussi, Jacopo Sansovino and Andrea Palladio were three key players in bringing to Venice the Renaissance grandeur that was established following the Lombardo family’s influence. The Sack of Rome in 1527 AD caused a scattering of the Papal city’s architects. It brought both Jacopo Sansovino and Sebastian Serlio, amongst others, to Venice, where they set to creating a new Roman language in their architecture and published works respectively.10 The Venetian government itself was based on the ideals of the Roman Republic so the appropriation of Roman architecture in Venice seemed fitting.11 It was Palladio, who left Venice’s last marks of Renaissance architecture, 9 L.B. Alberti, On the Art of Building: In Ten Books, trs. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, Mass; London: MIT Press, 1992), 265. 10 Howard, The Architectural History of Venice, 137. 11 Ibid., 136. EXCERPT: RENAISSANCE ARCH RESEARCH PAPER 5 that said “in Venice where all the fine arts flourish and which is the sole remaining exemplar of the grandeur and magnificence of the Romans…”explaining succinctly the city’s reasoning for their continued obsession with the creation of a more elaborate urban fabric: to maintain the legacy Venice had created for itself and bring in the long-celebrated splendor of ancient and modern Rome. 12 A reflection of the rise in popularity of processional routes during the Renaissance was evident in the built environment of the city. Entire portions of the city were redone in order to match the elaborate rituals.13 Many artists and architects were commissioned by the city “in order to make [Venice] very beautiful for the glory of the land,” and for the glory of the success of the government.14 Doge Andrea Gritti (doge from 1523-1528) was most well-known for his renavatio urbis, a major push for a renovation of the center of Venice; all architecture in the Piazza San Marco underwent significant transformation, or complete reconstruction.15 To aid in this redesign process, Doge Gritti selected Jacopo Sansovino as proto, the city’s superintendent of building.16 “The changes instigated by Gritti and executed under the supervision of Jacopo Sansovino were much more significant than hitherto realized” because they symbolized a shift in architectural thought from the Byzantine east, to the Roman west. 17 “Sansovino’s Roman experiences —his extensive studies and his 12 Andrea Palladio, I Quattro Libri Dell'architettura: Venice, 1570, trs. Robert Tavernor, (Oakland, CA: Octavo, 2000), Preface 5. 13 Muir, Civic Ritual, 60. 14 M. Sanudo, I Diarii, ed. R Fulin, 58 vols., Venice 1879-1903, XV, col. 541; Venetian patriciate and historian (1466-1536); Quoted in Muir. Civic Ritual 15 Andrew Hopkins, “Architecture and Infirmitas: Doge Andrea Gritti and the Chancel of San Marco”, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 57 (2) (1998): 182–97. 16 Howard, The Architectural History of Venice, 139. 17 Hopkins, “Architecture and Infirmitas”, 182. EXCERPT: RENAISSANCE ARCH RESEARCH PAPER 6 knowledge of the works of Bramante and his successors —had provided him with the necessary equipment to propagate the new style in Venice.”18 The Ducal Procession through the city is the most identifiable example of a processional route causing changes in the built environment. When a law passed in 1485 making the coronation of the Doge a public event, construction began on a ceremonial staircase in the courtyard of Palazzo Ducale, beginning the Renaissance tradition of embellishment along processional routes.19 “The ducal procession usually began at the Ducal Palace, wove around the periphery of Piazza San Marco, and ended in the basilica’s newly constructed Piazzetta. On occasion the paraders went afterward on foot or by boat to another site, usually a church, for a special commemoration, but the normal ritual territory was the centrally located Piazza.”20 As one of the most significant and renowned civic rituals through the city, the Ducal Procession caused the political leaders of Venice to transform the city into a more purposefully planned layout, with new buildings, and new additions to old buildings along the entire length of the route. The ducal procession was noteworthy in its ability to display the Doge’s authority and to symbolize the hierarchical order of the republic, all while visually linking Palazzo Ducale with Saint Mark’s tomb, and other cult centers depending on occasion.21 18 Howard, Jacopo Sansovino, 3.